Obama has one of the highest initial job-approval ratings (68%) of any post-WWII president. The flip side of it: The Expectations.
Dave Rex Wood is a software engineer and enthusiastic amateur photographer in Colorado. On inauguration day, he revived the post-election Message for Obama phenomenon and sent six more requests to ...

Barry S says he might be the guy you see wandering around DC with "a camera the size of a Mini Cooper and lens that looks like a brass canon." That equipment could explain how he got this great shot of the inaugural parade. The men appear to be a ...

Jayel Aheram (a ballotvoxregular featured here and here) just filmed Isaac, a friend and fellow Marine, reacting to his new Commander-in-Chief's inaugural speech. Isaac's favorite line: "As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
Bknittingagain gives Isaac a ...

DC primped for the inauguration with a full-blown dress rehearsal on Sunday. People swept the streets. Military personnel marched with flags. Portapotties were set up and sealed with zip ties. When faux Obamas and Bidens practiced the swearing-in at the Capitol, Army Staff Sergeant Derrick Brooks stood in for Barack.
Two ...

[mtfrazier / Flickr]
There's actually a blog dedicated to the Obama-and-food niche. It's called Obama Foodorama: A Daily Diary of The Obama Foodscape, One Byte At A Time. So when Obama visited the mess hall at Marine Corps Base Hawaii during Christmas dinner, Obama Foodorama "parsed" the significance and tried to ...

[scriptingnews / Flickr]
On Monday, Obama introduced his national security nominees. These include a Republican (Robert Gates) and a retired Marine general (James Jones) whose politics are opaque -- as well as Democrats like Susan Rice and Eric Holder. The early reactions from the blogosphere were largely positive, even from some ...

Madison Guy (who may be probutcool -- hard to tell) is an editor, writer, and photographer in Madison, Wisconsin. Yesterday, on Veterans Day, he took the long way to work. Via a memorial to those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "[T]he markers seemed to go on forever," he said, "stretching ...

The blog Alive in Baghdad aims to "empower[...] Iraqi citizen journalists to share their stories with the world." We featured their work previously here. In this video, Iraqis talk about the US election: about who they think is likely to win and and who would make a difference for Iraq. ...

Tony Contini explained via Flickrmail that he took this photo at an American Legion in Sparks, Nevada, during a campaign rally. Apparently a McCain supporter and an Obama supporter both spoke to the veterans about the election. "Very interesting stuff," says Tony.
[Tony Contini / Flickr]
The focus on the veteran's ear ...

An assortment of pictures from recent McCain/Palin rallies.
Linnette Vasquez would like to live in Disney World. At the moment, though, she resides in Miami, where she attended a McCain rally last Friday and spotted this shy supporter:
[linnette alissa. / Flickr]
The same day, togross saw McCain holding up a "Joe the ...

Several Iraq veterans were arrested and injured at Hofstra University during the third presidential debate. They were part of a crowd protesting the Iraq war and wanted to ask each candidate a question. (You can hear them voicing the questions here -- hat tip to Sarolta Cump.)
John J Hagan, an ...

Kenn Christ from San Francisco watched the first presidential debate with a bunch of friends, and they played a drinking game. As with all good drinking games, the rules were simple. Each candidate had a list of phrases. Whenever either one said any of his phrases, it was time ...

Weighing in [mrdorkesq / Flickr]
OK, it's several days after the fact. You've probably heard all you care to about McCain refusing to look at Obama, Obama stumbling over the name of the soldier on his bracelet, or general cluelessness/mindfulness on the financial crisis and the middle class. (If you'd like ...

Home [Jayel Aheram / Flickr]
The economy, Sarah Palin, and, well, the economy have largely replaced Iraq in campaign-related headlines. For many voters, the war may resurface during the first presidential debate (in theory happening on Friday), which will focus on foreign-policy issues. For veterans, the war never went away. Alex ...

Johanna feels she was "born in the wrong era" because she's "terribly addicted to abandoned properties" dating from the 1860s to the 1930s. She lives in Kansas, where she took this photo a week ago in Skidmore (thanks, Sue Salinger):
[Moonlight Cocktail Photography / Flickr]
The house may be a little ...

Brian Glanz from Seattle captured this screenshot during McCain's convention speech. Brian says under the photo that he feels NBC and CNN did an inadequate job of reporting the protests in their written accounts of the speech. (Thanks, Sue Salinger.)
[brian.glanz / Flickr]
If you'd like to do your own fact checking ...

A wordle word cloud of McCain's and Palin's speeches
[mattlehrer / Flickr]
It's been a long two weeks of conventioneering. And so without further ado, here are three reactions to the very last speech: John McCain's.
Lori is a Republican "Army brat" who has settled into Arizona and its dating scene. The whole ...

Stephen Swofford, Denver resident, says it only occurred to him a year ago that he could translate his love of photography into a career. He now appears to be a photojournalism student at Metro State College of Denver. Last week during the convention he took to the streets to and ...

[talkradionews / Flickr]
We didn't come across anything superquotable on Joe Biden's convention speech in a first pass at Google Blog Search, but what we have is here, and we'll add to the list if we find more. Lots of people seemed to be 'fessing up online, though, that his son ...

[rklau / Flickr]
Lots of emotion out there surrounding Kennedy's determination to speak at the convention despite his illness. Carrie from Reston, Virginia, was also moved by his commitment to service that was highlighted in the tribute video:
One of the parts that hit me from this video was the statement that ...